Page 18 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
Caro had hoped for a moment more of obscurity, but her hopes wilted, and so did her excitement. Robbie and Drew looked up. She finished her descent under their observation, with a sense of foreboding.
As soon as she put George down, he charged forward. ‘Uncle Bobbie!’
Robbie looked at her not George, his gaze briefly skimming the length of her body, then lifting back to her face. Heat burned in her skin as her nerves revolted. Yet, her mind insisted on recalling the weight of his warm hand as it had covered hers last evening.
‘Oh!’ The cry came from George. He had caught his toe on a wrinkle in the rug. He tumbled forward, the hand that would stop his fall reaching out with the wooden horse still in his grip.
Caro hurried to help as his head hit the floor with a bump. Thank the Lord it was wooden boards beneath the rug and not a stone floor.
Drew reached him first. George howled, his hand clutching a beheaded wooden horse covered in his scarlet blood.
‘Has he cut his head?’
‘No.’ Drew turned to show her. ‘I think he bit his lip when he fell. No real harm, Caro.’
Drew wiped his thumb across his son’s swollen lower lip as George howled and Robbie held out a handkerchief to wipe away the pearls of sparkling tears on George’s chubby cheeks.
Caro’s hand rested on George’s shoulder. ‘Oh, poppet, youbroke your horse.’ Her hand rose and stroked George’s hair in the same moment that Robbie’s did. Their fingertips touched. She pulled her hand away.
‘We will buy you another,’ Robbie said.
Caro’s heart galloped, calling her to flee. But Robbie would be here for weeks so she must force herself to feel easier with him. ‘George was eager to say hello to you,’ she said. It felt as though he stared at her, but he was only looking at a person who was speaking.
George reached for his uncle.
Robbie reached out in return to take him from Drew. ‘Well, hello, young man.’
In his favourite uncle’s arms, George’s howling became sobs and sniffs.
Robbie’s ease with George stirred different emotions in Caro, as memories of the life she had once hoped for came to mind. If she had given Albert a son, she did not think he would have held or played with him. His children would be out of sight and mind in the nursery, kept by servants, to be inspected like his horses once or twice a day. It was more evidence that Robbie’s actions towards her were kindness. Unlike her former husband, Robbie was a good-natured man.
George pressed his face into Robbie’s neckcloth, probably getting blood all over it. ‘I want my mama.’
‘Your mama is asleep,’ Drew said. ‘Iris woke her in the night and she needed to rest. She will be down in a little while.’
Robbie’s gaze lifted to Caro, and he smiled. The expression shone in his eyes, not simply parted his lips. He was as open in nature as his sister. But even so, when he smiled at her across the room last night, anger and discomfort had taken up their swords and begun an irrational war inside her.
‘Will you join us for tea, Caro?’ Drew lifted an eyebrow as he threw down his challenge.
Forcing a smile, she nodded, then led them into the drawing room.
A maid was already in there, laying out the tea on a table. Drew must have ordered it when Robbie arrived.
Caro breathed slowly, trying not to show how hard it was to draw the air past the panic in her chest.
George released a deep whimper of longing and held out a hand towards the table where a plate of almond biscuits stood. Caro picked up the plate and held it out for George to take one. He took a bite from it, scattering crumbs onto Robbie’s morning coat.
‘Your neckcloth is ruined,’ she said, looking at the patch of blood.
Robbie shrugged, expressing that George was more important to him than his expensive clothes. He took a biscuit. His hands were beautifully proportioned, his fingers long and slender. She had only ever seen his hands act gently.
Albert’s hands were broad, his fingers fuller – and his hands had acted with brutal cruelty.
She looked away and held the plate towards Drew, as an ache twisted in her womb at the thought of a gentle man with a child. But her brother was gentle with his son all the time, so why it felt different looking at Robbie she had no idea.
10
The day after Rob’s arrival, Caroline was unexpectedly at the breakfast table.
